Home Teeth Whitening Risks

Understandably, many of us are turning to home tooth whitening kits as a way to avoid the expense of visiting a professional. These kits make use of small tubes of bleaching solution, applied to the teeth for a set period of time. They are proven to work, and the effects can last for around six months at a time.

However, as with any at-home treatment, there are always dangers. Here’s a guide to the main teeth whitening risks and how to avoid them.

What Are The Risks?

Although some people worry that the bleach contained in whitening products may damage the teeth and gums over the long term, the evidence suggests that they’re safe to use. The main risk of at-home treatments is sensitivity in the teeth. In other words, you can find it painful to eat or drink hot or cold foods after treatment. In most cases this is temporary, but the severity varies from person to person.

How To Avoid The Side Effects

1) Always follow the instructions on the label. Never leave the product on your teeth for longer than the recommended time frame.

2) Pay attention to any sensitivity you may feel while the product is on your teeth. If they start getting sensitive, decrease the recommended treatment time, or even try avoiding it altogether for the next few days.

3) Start using toothpaste developed specifically for sensitive teeth if you experience an adverse reaction to the whitening product. Visit a dentist if it continues.

4) If you already suffer from sensitive teeth and/or gums, or any other dental issue, then it’s important to speak to your doctor before you even begin any at-home whitening treatment.

5) Never use any teeth whitening product for a continuous period of over 14 days. It’s important to give your teeth a break from the treatment to minimize teeth whitening risks. Only use the products once every six months at most.

6) Children under the age of 18 should not use whitening products while the teeth are still developing. Nor should pregnant or breastfeeding women.

7) If you need to whiten veneers, crowns, fillings or false teeth then whitening isn’t the answer. Instead, contact your dentist who may replace them with lighter-colored versions.

Thankfully, home treatments use a much lower concentration of bleach than professional options. This helps to avoid any teeth whitening risks, as long as you’re careful to follow instructions.

How to Keep Teeth White

Now that you’ve had your teeth whitened, you’ll want tips on how to keep teeth white over time. If you’re like most people, you don’t just want your pearly whites to shine simply for a special occasion but you want them to look their best around the clock while you work and play. There are several steps you can take right at home to make sure your teeth help make your smile a stunning one.

For example, you can make sure that you utilize frequent brushing. That’s the first step in learning how to keep teeth white over time. Even if you’re away from home during the day, take along a toothbrush and toothpaste. Don’t be a sipper of dark colas or coffee.

If you want a beverage that has a tendency to stain teeth, drink it but don’t nurse it along throughout the day. Flossing and regular check ups to head off potential problems are another important step in keeping teeth bright.

Finally, another way you can learn how to keep teeth white all the time is by using a whitener on a regular basis. Don’t wait until unsightly stains develop before you go searching for a whitener. The best way to protect your smile is always by going on the offensive rather than the defensive.

How To Get Rid Of A Toothache

Are you currently looking for a way of how to get rid of a toothache? There are many natural toothache remedies that you can apply right now that can give you near instant relief of toothache pain.

You can get rid of your toothache pain with the help of ingredients found in the home so you don’t have to go to the pharmacy in the middle of the night for the correct medication for you. Actually, you do not even have to leave the comfort of your home as the majority of these products, at a guess, are available at your fingertips right now and are in your cupboard.

Obviously the question is, why do teeth ache and why, of all times, at 2AM? I’ll bet it is the middle of the night and you’re madly looking for something to take the edge off the pain and a stock standard aspirin isn’t quite doing it for you.

This is cold comfort but your toothache was a gradual process that built up and it wasn’t until the time that infection finally hit the pulp tissue and the nerve that the pain signal was finally transmitted to your brain. This didn’t happen overnight. It took weeks, months or even years for the tooth to become bombarded by bacteria that finally led to the toothache you are now having. If you are suffering from a toothache it is usually because you have an infection of some kind which came from poor gum health.

According to FDA Consumer Magazine, the major cause of tooth loss in U.S adults aged 35 and over is below par gum health (periodontal disease), It is estimated that a massive 75% of this group have some form of gum disease and that 60% know nothing about correct dental care with 39% not going to the dentist on a regular basis.

Why does our society accept teeth loss as an inevitable part of life when it doesn’t have to be. There are remote tribes across the planet that don’t have access to high sugar, refined foods or modern dental treatment yet they still enjoy life with all of their teeth intact and in perfect health. We were meant to have all of our teeth to last us a lifetime yet we except tooth loss as a normal part of life. We should have our teeth long after our 40′s and 50′s and we can do this through proper dental hygiene and education.

Here are some preventative techniques that will allow you to keep your teeth for longer and a surefire way on how to get rid of a toothache:

Chew sugar free gum immediately following your “last” meal for the day. Don’t chew sugar free gum after every meal as this may cause flatulence and explosive diarrhea in reaction to the artificial sweetener, Sorbitol. Having just one piece of gum for the day allows you to produce enough saliva to reduce the tooth eroding bacteria population already feeding off the last meal you just ate.

Get more Vitamin D in your body, this helps to strengthen and fortify your bones. You can get Vitamin D naturally from a good dose of sunlight for 30 minutes or from food such as egg yolks, milk, cheese and yoghurts. Now that you have some tips that will help to keep your teeth in tip top shape and in perfect working order, here is a great toothache cure to take care of the pain right now:

This should give you some relief in the next 10 to 20 minutes. Hopefully you probably have this in your kitchen.

Place a piece of onion big enough to cover the affected tooth. Leave on the tooth for 30 minutes to help kill bacteria and give pain relief. If the tooth allows for it, cut off a bite sized piece of onion and chew it for 2 to 3 minutes. This will release the antiseptic qualities of the onion and help the pain to subside.

How Do You Get A Toothache

Next to childbirth and passing a kidney stone a toothache is one of the most painful things anyone can experience. Unless through blunt force trauma to the teeth, a toothache is not something that just happens over night but rather an accumulation of wear and tear and erosion of the teeth over time.

You barely notice this is all going on, inside your mouth millions of bacteria share your food and excrete it in the form of acids that de-mineralize your teeth, in fact it is by virtue of this process that tooth decay takes place, one day at a time. It’s not until you get that characteristic jolt of pain to the offending tooth or the slow torturous throbbing pain that never seems to subside.

There are factors at play when it comes to toothache:

You could suffer from tooth sensitivity and no this doesn’t involve your tooth getting in touch with its “feelings”, but rather the tooth’s increasing sensitivity to hot and cold liquids over time. Sensitivity may just creep up on you until you’re suddenly more sensitive to the things you weren’t before. Hypersensitivity is where your teeth are extremely reactive to hot and cold, in fact just cold drafts can set your teeth into a tail spin, even excess moisture can make them react.

Sensitivity comes from the erosion of the tooth’s protective enamel layer. This happens over time as we chew our food. Think of our chewing action like a bevel, each time we grind, we take off some of the minerals we need to keep the teeth strong. The more we file down our teeth naturally through the action of eating , the more enamel we lose until it gets down close to the pulp. Because the layer of enamel begins to thin there is less protection of the pulp, dentine and the nerve and because this layer thins, the more the nerve of the tooth feels the external elements of hot and cold, the more it reacts.

If you have a toothache the best cure is natural. A good one is to place a clove of garlic on the affected tooth. Garlic has healing and anesthetic properties which will not only kill the bacteria causing the infection but provide some much needed relief to the pained area.

For a long term solution, what you should really be aiming for is to repair the tooth. Yes teeth can repair themselves because they are living entities with blood flow. That’s what teeth are supposed to do naturally but it’s because of our poor diet and lifestyle that teeth are unable to do this as effectively as our ancestors would have.

If given time and with the right diet of calcium containing dairy foods, teeth should re-mineralize all on their own but it’s because of the highly refined sugary foods that continue to wear down the enamel they are never given a chance to do this effectively. If you really want to prevent future tooth decay, rebuilding and strengthening your teeth is the key.

How To Fix A Toothache

Did you know that every remedy to every ailment and disease can be found in nature, even how to fix a toothache?

In fact I’m willing to bet that what you need right this very moment to rid yourself of your toothache can be found right inside your kitchen pantry and fridge.

We are only scratching the surface in natural pain remedies that the Egyptians have known for thousands of years. Here’s a great natural remedy that can give you pain relief minutes from now:

Salt has been used for over 3,500 years as a natural food preserve and for its ability to kill bacteria which is why salt is still recommended to this day for the natural treatment of wounds and infections and has been known to be highly effective in the treatment of toothache.

What makes salt such a great anti bacterial is that it draws water from bacteria through osmosis causing the bacteria shrink and die.

Osmosis is the process whereby water from a lower saline concentration travels across the cell membrane barrier to higher concentrations. The bacteria in the presence of high saline or salty environments are destroyed by dehydration which is why salt is such an effective preserve, from the time of the ancient Egyptians and was even used in the process of mummification.

Most toothaches arise from some kind of infection whether from a cracked tooth or missing filling, bacteria takes hold from food particles which have decomposed and are lodged within cavities where infection sets in.

Salt is ideal in the treatment of infection while addressing the issue of pain arising from the infected tooth. If you treat more than just the symptom of pain and treat the cause you will be able to eliminate the pain permanently.

Salt water has a two-fold purpose as it draws out infection from the affected gum tissue surrounding the nerve it kills bacteria while giving pain relief at the same time.

Directions:

Create a saline solution by simply adding a teaspoon of sea salt to a glass of lukewarm water and rinse around your mouth for around 20 to 30 seconds before spitting out. The saline solution cleans the area surrounding the tooth and helps draw out of some the infection responsible for the inflammation and pain.

This treatment is safe and you can repeat as frequently as required until the pain subsides. You can also add sea salt or rock salt directly to the tooth or affected area if you don’t mind the salty taste.

Sharp, intense pain should subside within a few minutes of treatment. It’s not enough to just treat the pain, you need to ensure that the toothache doesn’t return, to do that you need to know how you can strengthen your teeth to stand up to tooth destroying bacteria and reverse the damage done to your teeth throughout the years. This is the only way to be truly toothache free permanently.

Why So Much Pain In A Toothache

Did you know that not all toothache pain is alike? And did you know that not all toothache pain is straightforward? Some toothache pain is more serious than others and can signal more serious underlying health issues. Thank your teeth for alerting you to this.

Here are just some of the things you should be looking out for especially if the pain is lingering for long periods of time.

Some of the signs you experience can be symptomatic of other more serious ailments so it can be difficult to give an accurate diagnosis without the assistance of your dentist.

These are the general signs of toothache:

* Sharp, shooting acute pain isolated to the affected area that comes and goes (this could be caused by tooth sensitivity, head tension or stress as well as the tooth possibly being cracked or exposed to air.

* Dull throbbing chronic pain that lingers for a longer period of time.

These are not as common for toothache. If you experience any of the following, please contact an emergency dentist as soon as possible:

* Are you experiencing fever?

* Are you finding breathing and swallowing difficult?

* Is the affected area surrounding the tooth swollen? Is your check or jaw the same side as the affected area also swollen and feeling sensitive to the touch (almost like a tingling sensation?)

* Are your glands swollen under your jaw on the affected tooth’s side? This usually means that the body is fighting an infection which exhibits as fever.

* Is your tooth too painful to eat, is it affecting your eating or sleeping?

* Is there a foul smelling, tasting discharge of pus coming from the affected tooth? This could be a sign of abscess infection which when left untreated can end up in the bloodstream. It can also spread to and infect the surrounding bone of the affected tooth.

These are signs of infection. Seek immediate medical attention if you are experiencing any of these, because if left untreated can lead to complications.

Whatever the cause, your toothache could represent other problems. It’s best to get this checked out by your dental professional while you treat the immediate pain now.

Home Remedies For A Toothache

Why is it that we wait until we get to the point of excruciating pain that we yell “I wish I looked after my teeth“. It’s not until we are doubled over in agony from our toothache that we ever spare a thought for them. How often do we ever think about our teeth when we eat the sweet, delicious sticky treat? Not until we feel it later with a monsterous toothache.

If you can’t get to the dentist immediately then here are some home remedies for a toothache to tie you over until you can get an appointment.

Garlic

You can place a whole clove of garlic on the tooth for 30 minutes. If you’re able to apply pressure, bite down on the clove allowing some of the juice to release on the affected tooth providing a natural soothing anesthetic. Gives relief within 20 minutes.

Tea Bag

Place a standard teabag into a cup of water, place in the microwave for 1 minute. Remove the teabag while still warm and place on the sore tooth. Bite down gently and hold in place for 20 minutes or until you get pain relief. Substituting green tea also works well and has some extra healing properties of its own.

Hydrogen Peroxide

For pain relief using Hydrogen Peroxide, take a swig of 3% (food grade) Hydrogen Peroxide and swish around the mouth like mouth wash, spit it out and rinse thoroughly several times afterward with water. You can also add half a glass of Hydrogen Peroxide (3% food grade) to half a glass of water, swishing it around in your mouth for 30 seconds before spitting it out rinsing thoroughly with lukewarm salt water.

But the real key to permanent freedom of toothache pain is to prevent it from ever happening again.

This can be achieved through improved diet and dental hygiene. For example, change your toothbrush regularly, bristles tend to get quite worn and so don’t sweep the plaque properly from the gum line anymore. This is how Gingivitis sets in which eventually leads to periodontal disease and then tooth loss. Avoid the hard bristle toothbrushes. This type of toothbrush should be discontinued as the hard bristles accelerate gum recession by pulling the gums away from the teeth.

Floss, particularly before bed. This ensures that you minimize the amount of tooth eroding bacteria while you sleep. Make sure to get under the gum line as the bacteria that congregate there are responsible for abscesses and infection as well as gum recession leading to tooth loss.

If you have to snack in between meals make sure its fruit or vegetables. The most damage that you can do to your teeth is to have sugary snacks throughout the day, this allows the number of bacteria to grow exponentially.

Do you ever find that your teeth feel more fuzzy after a high sugar snack as opposed to eating say a piece of vegetable or fruit? This is because the bacteria snack and grow on whatever you feed it and foods with high sugar content provide excess energy for bacteria numbers to multiply.

What To Eat After Getting Teeth Whitened

People who have had their teeth whitened will often be warned to avoid foods that stain their teeth at least for the near future. The first few weeks after teeth are whitened, the teeth will be sensitive and prone to staining, and it is wise to stay away from food and drink that you know will stain the teeth. Foods that do this include dark meat, spinach and blueberries. It is a matter of finding the staining foods in your diet and replacing them – in the short term at least – with foods that are non-staining.

Commonly, the foods and drinks that are earmarked as “staining” are ones which are dark in color and to some extent “wet”. Foods that contain juices can get into the grooves which may have been left by the bleaching – this goes for drinks too, so if you want to avoid staining it is important to at least temporarily avoid black coffee and red wine. Replacing these foods and drinks may involve some trial and error, but there are some better choices around.

Instead of eating beef, you should eat chicken or pork as these are light meats. Instead of drinking red wine, change to white wine. Replace blueberries with strawberries, spinach with celery and tomatoes with cucumber. You can maintain a balanced diet and keep your newly-bleached teeth looking white for longer. You will still need to brush your teeth and keep a dental hygiene regime going, but the effects will be much greater if you eat the right things.

Like Your New Teeth? Take Care Of Them!

When you have teeth whitening treatment, it is very easy to get the impression that you are now a little bit “bomb proof”. Having given themselves a blank slate, many people arrive at the conclusion that it is a good idea to go about putting something on that slate. However, this is a stupid thing to do, and there are various reasons for this.

Having had one’s teeth whitened, it is not uncommon for people to arrive at the realization that they have almost a licence to go and do the same things that stained the teeth in the first place. One thing that stands in the way of this, though, is that newly-whitened teeth are more prone to staining from food and drink. If you have just had the treatment, it is advisable to avoid common staining agents like red wine, black coffee and cigarette smoke.

You can maybe have another course of teeth whitening treatment at some point. However, that point is not within weeks or months of the first treatment. Teeth whitening will cause the teeth to be more sensitive – so think about how that will feel after two or three treatments in the course of a year. It’s really not worth it.

If someone handed you a beautiful vase, you would not cover it in graffiti or throw it at a wall. That would be idiocy. So if you are handed teeth that look a world better than they used to, there is nothing to be gained by letting them fall into ruin again.

From Time To Time, Not All The Time

Having your teeth whitened by a dentist is something from which people with the money and the inclination can get a lot of benefit. However, it needs to be remembered that as a treatment teeth whitening is really something that you use to put things right and then move forward, not something you can have done again and again, every time something goes wrong. There are people who seek to go for teeth whitening on a semi-regular basis rather than guarding the whiteness that comes from the initial treatment.

This is a bad idea. The fact of the matter is that the products used to whiten teeth are powerful – they need to be in order for them to work – and if they are used on a repeated basis there is a significant risk of causing irreparable damage to the teeth. Instead of relying on the treatment to fix the discoloration of your teeth, it is a much better idea to have the treatment once and then be conscientious in the cleaning and washing of your mouth so that they do not get to the point where such treatment is necessary.

If you have a heart bypass, you do not then go out and eat as much fatty food as you can lay your hands on. If you get a liver transplant, you should not immediately start drinking with a zeal unmatched by how you drank before the surgery. Although teeth whitening is not as major a treatment as the former two, the principle remains – once you’ve got the results you want, don’t throw them away because the same treatment a second time can be damaging.

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